The present invention relates to solar energy collectors and particularly to solar windows and solar energy absorbing elements which make use of fluids as a heat transfer medium.
Many systems have been proposed for collecting and converting energy from the sun as an alternative to the use of fossil fuels for energy generation. With rising costs of fossil fuels the collection of solar energy provides an attractive alternative. However, a major drawback so far of large scale solar energy use has been the initial cost of installation and relative inefficiencies of collection. Glass elements are difficult to fabricate and are subject to breakage due to vandalism, accident during installation, breakage by hail storms, and cracking due to heat differentials caused by shadows. Furthermore, they are heavy and require substantial labor in construction. Although flexible elements have been tried in the past wind damage and degradation due to exposure to the sun have been problems. Although various configurations using plastic materials have been proposed none to date have been commercially significant. The present invention is directed toward providing a simple inexpensive durable solar energy collector panel.